MSI adds new multimedia, gaming notebooks to G series

Putting the whole Cougar Point fiasco behind it, MSI has announced two new notebooks based on Intel's Huron River platform, the GR620 and GE620. Both G-series systems feature a brushed metal body, a 15.6-inch 1366x780 LED-backlit display and nearly identical internals, except the latter is better equipped for visually demanding tasks such as gaming. The GE620 has a discrete Nvidia GeForce GT 540M GPU with 1GB of VRAM, while the GR620 is limited to Sandy Bridge's IGP.

MSI offers both notebooks with a second-generation Core i7 processor (no specific chips are mentioned), 320GB, 500GB or 640GB of storage, and a "top-end" 4-channel sound system designed in unison with Dynaudio. There's also a webcam capable of recording 720p video at 30fps, which is accompanied by facial recognition software, HDMI and VGA outputs, two USB 3.0 ports, one USB 2.0 port, a 5-in-1 card reader, as well as Gigabit Ethernet, 802.11b/g/n, and Bluetooth v2.1+EDR.

Other features include shortcuts to eject a DVD, turn off the display and more. MSI preloads the systems with Windows 7 Home Premium as well as the company's Easy Viewer photo manager and Easy Face biometric software, which remembers credentials for MSN as well as other websites and systems, allowing you to login by placing your mug in front of the webcam. The press release doesn't give any hint on what you can expect for battery life, nor does it mention pricing or availability.